


Guttersnipes

by blackflowercrowns



Series: Girlsies Week 2018 [4]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Canon Era, origin fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 09:38:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14422635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackflowercrowns/pseuds/blackflowercrowns
Summary: Sniper finds a little girl in an alleyway.





	Guttersnipes

It wasn’t unusual to see guttersnipes when out selling. When you were a guttersnipe yourself, it was hard to not notice them. And while she always saw them, Sniper usually left them alone. She had her own self to worry about.

“WOMAN FOUND MURDERED IN DITCH!” Sniper yelled. A few men came up and gave her pennies before walking away again. She continued on her way, walking around Manhattan and selling her wares. She hawked with the best of them, a far cry from the shy girl she’d been when she first started. 

Sniper sold from sunrise to sunset, passing all her wares off in exchange for pennies. She even managed to get off with an entire quarter! It was a great day. Until she heard sniffling from the alleyway to her right. 

Now, the boys may call her heartless, but she didn’t bring home kids nearly as often as they did. Sniper was a more logical thinker, knowing that more kids coming into the Lodging House meant more competition, a harder time selling, crowded living conditions and so many more awful things. 

She didn’t want to be mean to the kids on the street (God knows she was one) but they didn’t have the resources to take care of every kid they came across. But the sniffles became louder, and Snipes could no longer ignore them.

“Hey, kid?” she called. “You alright?” Immediately the sniffles stopped.

Sniper rolled her eyes. Damn her motherly instincts. “I ain’t gonna hurt you. How about you’se come out and we can talk?”

A girl stood from her place hidden deep in the alley and she walked towards Sniper. Sniper smiled at her. “Hey, kiddo. What’s your name?”

“Victoria,” she said. 

“M’names Sniper,” Sniper said. She spit in her hand and offered it to Victoria. Victoria stared at the offered hand before spitting in her own and reaching forward. They shook, Sniper firmly and Victoria shyly. 

“You got any folks?” Sniper asked. Victoria shook her head. “Okay, then I’ll take you back with me. Sound good?” Victoria nodded. 

Sniper lead the way back to the Lodging House, occasionally having to slow down so that Victoria could keep up. Sniper thought that she couldn’t’ve been more than five, she was so tiny. She barely graced Snipers’ chest, and Sniper was by no means tall. The two were silent the whole trip. Sniper was extremely awkward, and Victoria was just trying to keep up.

They reached the house with another mob of boys and girls, all clambering up the stairs and into their bedrooms. Sniper didn’t even stop by the front desk, sneaking in behind JoJo. 

“Who’s that?” JoJo asked, pointing to Victoria.

“Found her today,” Sniper said. “Ain’t got no folks.”

JoJo made a sympathetic noise. “‘Ey, I’se real sorry kid.”

Victoria looked up at him. She blinked owlishly, but didn’t respond.

“Oooookay,” JoJo said. He looked up at Sniper. “Should I go get Hatter?”

Sniper nodded. 

JoJo touched the brim of his hat and scampered off. Sniper lead Victoria to the washroom and helped her wash some of the grime off her face. Victoria sat silently the whole time. Hatter entered a few minutes later, his apprentice Jack at his side. Sniper gave a curt nod to Jack before turning her attention to Hatter.

“Hey, Hatter.”

“Sniper,” he greeted. “So who’s this little munchkin?” He squatted to look Victoria in the eyes. “You’se a small one, ain’t ya?”

“I am not small,” Victoria said.

“Yeah ya are!” Jack protested. Sniper shot him a look and he hushed. Despite the fact that she was nine and he was eleven, he was slightly scared of her for some reason. 

“How old are you?” Hatter asked.

“Nine,” Victoria said.

Sniper’s eyebrows raised comically. “You’re nine?!”

Victoria nodded.

“I thought you was like, five!”

“Alright, Smalls,” Jack said. “You can exploit that. Anyone asks, you’re five. Younger sells more papes.”

“Papes?” Smalls asked. 

“Y’know, newspapers?” Jack said. Smalls gave him a blank look. “We’re newsies. We sell papers.” She shook her head. Jack sighed. “Y’know, stand at street corners, shout ‘EXTRAY EXTRAY!’ stuff like that?”

Smalls just shook her head again.

“And you swear you’re nine?”

Hatter rolled his eyes and shoved Jack back. “Leave ‘er alone, Jackie.”

“So, Smalls,” Sniper said. “Let’s finish gettin’ you cleaned up, yeah? Then we’ll get ya a bed to sleep in.”

Smalls nodded and Sniper shooed the boys out. Hatter had obviously accepted Smalls as one of them (as she was sure he would) so now it was time to make her one. Sniper helped Smalls bathe, and when they were done Sniper scrounged up some clothes for her from the younger boys. 

Smalls put them on and immediately felt at home. For one, they were pants, something her mam had never let her wear. They were also soft (aka well-worn) and fit much better than her hand-me-down dress had been. She grinned up at Sniper, and Sniper returned the gesture.

Smalls and Sniper ended up bunking together, with Sniper on bottom and Smalls on top. It took ages for Smalls to fall asleep that night. She spent hours just grinning at the ceiling. She could already tell this place was going to be amazing.


End file.
